The 2017 Mid-Season Invitational Play-In bracket stage begins with North America’s perennial kings Team SoloMid (TSM) matching up against Vietnam's scrappy Gigabyte Marines (GAM). The Marines are coming off a meager 5-1 run in Group B, narrowly coming out with their  some wins backed by decent objective calls and jungle control. Coming in as a Wildcard means there aren’t many positives for GAM, but having a strong emphasis on jungle control and objectives is a stylistic mismatch for the current iteration of TSM. Svenskeren reliance on solo lane pressure to enable his invading playstyle is the key to Team SoloMid’s victories currently, specifically when they play around the top side of the map. When a team is willing to contest Svenskeren and not break under the pressure applied, then he has a tendency to overexert his presence and die, causing the team to crumble early game. This style of contention comes naturally for the Marines whose Jungler, Levi, who was crowned the VCS A Spring MVP. Constantly exerting his pressure in the river and revolving around mid lane with Optimus is GAM’s bread-and-butter, we even saw glimpses of this at 2016 All-Stars where the two attended for SEA. In contrast, their group stage play was a full view of how the Marines takeover a game off the backs of Levi and Optimus, often assisted by Stark (25.4 DMG%) in the Top Lane who enables plays in the top side of the map. In the top side of the map, with dueling pressure from Hauntzer/Stark and Bjergsen/Optimus is where Svenskeren will meet Gigabyte Marines aggressive Jungler, Levi.

Levi (pictured) and his pairing with Optimus are the catalyst for GIGABYTE Marines victories.

On the first day of group play the Marines skated by winning off intelligent objective calls in even games, but on day two they showed us how the team operates under ideal circumstances. Levi and Optimus worked together to snowball the game at 7 minutes against Lyon Gaming with a tower dive bot lane because of a previously set up mid push and TP advantage. From there GAM slowly choked out their opponents with rotations around the map because they’re superior mid game compared to the shielding, late game composition of LYN. While GAM’s general rotations and macro play aren’t as clean as that one cherry-pickedgame, it shows the overall goal of their team -- when they’re playing at peak performance, this is the level they’re at. Against the weak field in Group B, Levi and crew were able to execute that snowball consistently, holding a 2,446 GD@15 while securing the first three towers in 83% of their games at MSI 2017. A statistic that stems from utilizing the jungle and solo lane pressure is the team’s average share of jungle CS, of which GAM has 60.2% throughout group play. Levi’s inflated GD10 (793) and XPD10 (641) presents the immediate cause for the team’s successful early-mid game against opposing wildcard teams in group play. However, this playstyle is highly reliant on a) having pressure in your solo lanes and/or b) winning skirmishes 1v1/2v2 with the enemy jungler. Team SoloMid are no pushovers when it comes to pressuring solo lanes and the best GIGABYTE Marines can do is attempt to match the pressure they put out. The immovable obstacle for GAM will be four-time NA LCS champion Bjergsen.

Bjergsen (right) acts as the pedestal for his surrounding teammates success

When you get to the core of it, Bjergsen is the heart-and-soul of TSM despite Hauntzer shining or Svenskeren being game deciding, do-or-die style player this split. The amount of pressure he applies mid opens up more opportunities than nearly any other Western mid laner and certainly the way he commands that pressure is bar none. Mid lane is the cog in a team’s engine regardless of the player occupying it because of the access it grants to the map -- you win through mid -- but if you have a player like Bjergsen it nearly becomes the entire engine. If GIGABYTE Marines want to succeed with their style of mid/jungle control, they’ll have to prevent Bjergsen’s wheels from turning. To TSM’s advantage, Bjerg is the most efficient Western mid of this era, proactively pressuring mid to force the opponent to either a) miss a wave or b) respond to his team & him making a play on the map. Applying this type of pressure is the gold-standard for mid laners, but Bjergsen’s stability on 14 unique champions in Spring 2017 puts him above that by opening up the draft phase for his teammates. Draft phase will be the key against GAM in general, but specifically in the mid lane matchup against the aggressive, assassin roam style of play that Optimus excels in. Optimus’ champion pool mimics that of Cloud9’s Jensen who Bjerg recently dismantled in the NA LCS finals. The x-factor though is that Optimus is adept at roaming whereas Jensen is a lane-dominant player, leading to potential snowballs ala Hai in NA. To ensure Team SoloMid stymies the Wildcard region’s dreams, they need to initiate checkmate in the draft phase like VP did on Day 4.

Virtus.Pro’s draft here is nearly a perfect adaptation in their second game against GIGABYTE Marines and is an important example for how to set GAM behind in draft. The first key decisions come in banning Kennen and Fizz in the first ban phase, which are champions they’ve flexed in the tournament previously. These two bans should be a staple for TSM to limit the identity of GAM and deny Optimus from counterpicking Bjergsen’s Syndra with Fizz. Following those bans, the first pick of Graves is essential because of Levi’s clear difference in skill on champions not named Lee Sin or Graves. Fighting over those two shared champions between Sven and Levi will be a focal point of the series and is something TSM needs to jump out in front of during champ select. The next weakness we can target is GAM’s consistent banning of Gragas/Galio and general meta Top Laners in order to give Stark a good match-up. Stark’s specialty being Rumble is advantageous for Hauntzer because of his wide tank pool and ability to last out laning phase while provoking his opponent. VP’s third pick, Nautilus is a favorable matchup and something that Haunzter has gone to in the Spring season previously. The last lane TSM needs to divert is bot lane, where Slay and Archie play a utility role with Slay excelling when providing crowd-control as the AD. TSM and GAM’s bot lanes play very similar, however WildTurtle is capable of playing hyper-carries well and dealing DPS on the rare occasions he sets his mind to it. Because of this, it would be important for TSM to mimic VP’s ban phase by taking a strong AD carry early and baiting the Marines into waiting until second rotation to draft their own. In the second banning phase, eliminating champions like Ashe and Varus, or even Jhin will prevent the Wildcard underdog’s from getting their ideal composition and also force them into an uncomfortable position.  

Team SoloMid celebrating after their NA LCS Finals victory in Vancouver.

Even with a minor stylistic mismatch, it’s impossible to see any outcome where TSM doesn’t come out on top, especially if they draft properly around the matchups. TSM have stayed at the top of North America so long because of how quickly they adapt and the titan they possess in the mid lane, so any mistakes made -- or potential game losses -- will quickly be corrected throughout the series.  

If Team SoloMid finds themselves dictating the pace of the games and winning draft phase, then the match is likely on track for a 3-0. However, my overall prediction for the series is 3-1 because I think GIGABYTE Marines are underestimated and have potential to pick up a game with an early snowball backed by an aggressive draft.

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Sources: Oracle Exlier, eswiki, lolesports flickr